BOOKS: Cat Love Letters: Collected Correspondence of Cats In Love

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Cat Love Letters: Collected Correspondence of Cats In Love
by Leigh Rutledge, illustrated by Robert Crawford.
Dutton (375 Hudson, New York, NY 10014), 1994. $14.95.

I am afraid this is a women’s book. I cannot imagine a man, even the most aieurophilic
student of romantic correspondence of bygone eras when time and pains were spent on
billet-doux, wading through this. Junior high school girls giggling in gaggles, indulgent
mother-and-daughter teams of all ages, and sentimental elderly women will find it “precious.”
It is cleverly done, clearly designed to be a gift item. My copy came as an anniversary
remembrance, and as a valentine or a birthday gift, it will outlast more passing around than
chocolates, but it is written by cats who knew Martha Stewart, had ancestors who knew the
late Emily Post, and probably had descended from pets of Madame de Sevigne a n d L o r d
Chesterfield, both. Maybe a sigh and a mew is not enough. Perhaps both cats and their people
should make more of a game of corresponding, not just roll the ballpoints under the desk
and fall asleep. Here is a book that reveals the intricate maneuvers that may resolve the most
ardent love problems when pen and paper and purr engage.